Bicycle baggage cars may soon come to upstate Amtrak train lines

RENSSELAER -- Bicycle tourists in New York City and Montreal may soon add the Capital District to their list of places to visit for recreational biking, as Amtrak may be allowing bicycles as baggage aboard their upstate lines.

A group of New York lawmakers are pushing Amtrak to add bicycle baggage cars to their Adirondack and Ethan Allen lines with the intention of encouraging travelers from New York City and Montreal to set their sights on upstate destinations for bike vacations. Amtrak is currently building between 25 and 30 baggage cars at the CAF facility in Elmira, NY, estimated Schumer, and the senator would like to see baggage cars added to the two upstate lines.

Upstate New York is already a destination for many bicyclists due to a wealth of bike trails and picturesque vistas, as well as cycling events like the Lake Placid triathlons and Ironman events, but the lack of a bicycle baggage car prevents expanded that tourism, said Schumer.

"Right now, cyclists from Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley and the south, and the whole Montreal region in the north have no way for getting to these events on Amtrak regional lines," said Schumer. "A lot of them are city dwellers, they don't have cars, so if Amtrak doesn't allow you to ride with bikes, which is the way you recreate, you're not going to be coming here even though you may want to."

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As 60 percent of New York City residents do not own a car, but many already own bikes, the possible economic benefits of adding a single bicycle baggage car to the Adirondack line far outweighs the cost of doing so, said Josh Wilson, director of the New York Bicycling Coalition, which has been advocating for similar programs for the past two decades.

Whereas bicycling events tend to draw a special subset of the cycling community, noted Wilson, the majority are recreational cyclists, who make use of a bicycle baggage program. Those cyclists are often willing to spend $100 to $300 a day, and will stay in a region for several nights, and would use bicycle-centered lanes and trails. Several municipalities in the Capital District have already made or are planning to make improvements to their bicycle infrastructure including the city of Watervliet, which is in the midst of planning to extend the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail and improving the roads and trails for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The heritage and agricultural sites that bike tourists would be interested in visiting are already plentiful in the Capital District and Hudson Valley, said Linda Hillman, president of the Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce. "There are biking tourists that are into history, some that are into gardens," she said. "It just makes sense to give people with bikes the ability to come onboard."

It is hard to estimate the positive impact such a program could have. However, if Amtrak was to come onboard with the idea, the Saratoga Springs train station -- which has an average of 32,000 riders stepping off each day -- could see ridership thoroughfare rise by 1,000, said Todd L. Shinkus, president of the Saratoga County Regional Chamber of Commerce.

A "Bring Your Bicycle On Board" program already exists for the Boston-Portland line, as well as the New York-Charlotte line. The program also exists in California, where it has gained such popularity that reservations are required. However, currently the Adirondack line only allows for boxed bikes, but boxing a bike makes for major inconvenience, said Wilson, as a bicyclist that transports their bike in a box then has to keep that box with them while on vacation if they want to return via train.

"Bicycling is one of the fastest growing outdoor recreation activities in the country," he added. Instituting a bicycle baggage car "just makes sense."